Cry Out To Those Who Are Perishing

Terrible things happen to those who forget Yahweh. Not so long ago there were entire nations that had embraced Christianity, who called on the name of the Lord in good times and in bad. I would not call them Christian nations because there are no such thing but they were nations where the majority of their people had professed Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Some of these people were not true to their word but only spoke because the majority believed. Yet, now these nations have forgotten.

They have forgotten and terrible things are happening within them. The psalmist knew of that which I speak:

The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught.

The Lord is known by the judgment He executes;
The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. (Psalm 9:15-16)

Sometimes people call out in times of catastrophe, "Where is your God now", and it is often pointed out to them, "You have replaced him by that which is not God". The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made. They made the problems. They turned their back on the Lord and set their heart on evil things and those evil things open the door to disaster. Their foot gets caught in the net which they hid. They are snared in the work of their own doing.

Consider how many of those countries that once stood with Jesus, who based their laws on righteousness, are now slaughtering innocent children in the name of their own laws and their own justice? Not just the unborn children but those children deemed of lesser worth. And they do it in the name of compassion. Without the light of Yahweh's holiness evil looks good and the common begins to look holy. There is a reason why economies are failing. There is a reason why there are wars and rumours of wars. 

Even in our individual lives, there is a huge difference between a life of righteousness and one bent on its own destruction. If you are lacking joy, look to where you stand with Jesus. What are you allowing to happen within your own city gates? If you are lacking peace, look to where you stand with Jesus. Who or what is your council, guiding your steps, making your decisions? Where is your heart? It goes beyond words of worship? Do you consider the poor? The Widow? The orphan? Are we fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves?

There is not much you and I can do about entire nations, they are the dominion of our Lord, but we can do something about ourselves. We can also be a great influence on our family and friends. Do not be tempted by the evil of our day. Do not make your own god and your own rules. Stick to Jesus all the way. Walk in obedience and allow him to provoke righteousness in you. Love as he loved, not the soft kind but the fierce kind; the kind that takes risks to save those who are heading to their death. Yes, even in the face of the sanctions of nations we can stand, because we do not stand alone.

Remember:

The wicked shall be turned into hell,
And all the nations that forget God. (v. 17)

Father does not want this to happen. He is more interested in forgiveness and reconciliation, but he is also just and will carry out his judgement. However, we should work within his will that everyone would be saved. We should pray with the psalmist:

Arise, O Lord,
Do not let man prevail;
Let the nations be judged in Your sight.

Put them in fear, O Lord,
That the nations may know themselves to be but men. (v. 19-20)

... and Jesus to be King over them. May they all come to know you Lord, turning from their evil ways and be saved from the fiery pit of hell. That is why we are still here my friends, to call out the Word of Truth, the Word of Life, to the doomed peoples of this earth. Cry out!

Repentance Is A Good Thing

There are a lot of attractive things in this world. A lot of things that look and seem really good. There are a lot of things that give us a good feeling and when we are young we want to try them all. But as the apostle Paul said, we may think we have the right to do anything but "anything" is not always beneficial. Remember Eve and the temptation she faced when she considered that fruit. It looked good and she thought it would benefit her but it went against Yahweh's command. The fruit itself did not cause the damage as much as it was the act of disobedience.

Let's not lie to ourselves; there are consequences to sin. Some things look really good and beneficial but at the end of the day they destroy us, bringing shame and heartache. The apostle Paul wrote those words to the Corinthians who were trying to use the argument of Yahweh's grace as an excuse for sexual immorality. Today Christians use the excuse of Yahweh's love for the same purpose. They say because "God is love" that love is the basis for all things (which it is) so that if a relationship is based on love it is honouring and pleasing to Yahweh. This may be true if you want to ignore the hundreds of passages that deal with obedience. What comes out of a relationship of love with Yahweh? An overwhelming desire to obey. Jesus said, "If you love me obey my commands".

When we fail in our obedience (and we will), it is vital for us to grasp the importance of repentance. Repentance is more than just "I'm sorry" but a heart cry that comes with the conviction to turn away from that thing and have no part in it any more. It is a great desire to leave off rebellion and to walk in obedience, making obedience the great desire of our relationship because we love Yahweh with our entire heart. Obedience is a love response and it is in that love response that we begin to recognize good from evil, right from wrong.

Just picking out one of hundreds of examples in Scriptures of Yahweh's promise to respond to repentant hearts, look at 2 Chronicles 7. In this passage Yahweh is promising Solomon that when his nation responds to his correction with repentance, Yahweh will restore and bless them:

I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (vv. 12-14)

The unfortunate truth is that we are wrong sometimes. We get distracted. We move away from Jesus. We choose a wrong course. We get selfish. We are attracted to things that look good and seem beneficial but are set against the holiness of our God. We sin. Repentance is a good thing. Repentance is a restoring of things to their proper place. Repentance allows the Spirit to bring healing in the brokenness. Certainly we should know better. Yes we have failed. Yes, our failure has probably caused pain to others. But all we can do is trust that when Yahweh says he restores through repentance that he will do just that.

Consider the parable of the prodigal son that Jesus brought to this world. It is a story of hope. It is a parable of our relationship with the Father. The best thing the son did was consider his father. The best thing he did was come back in humbleness. The best thing he did was seek his father's face. Everything after that was the father. That is our Father. He will not deny a repentant heart and he will bring in restoration.

Have you made a mess of your life? Are things rough for you right now? Is there drought and pestilence in your "land"? This is simply the correction of the Father and the natural consequences of rebellion. There is nothing you can do to repair the damage but our Father has promised to bring healing. Run to him today. Repent and trust the Lord with all of it. Trust the Lord and be restored. Trust the Lord and see the healing flow. Repentance is a good thing.



 

The Lie Surrounding God's Love

Yesterday's blog is an important blog but it is not complete. Before I continue with our walk through Galatians I just want to add something to what I wrote yesterday. Realizing that God loves everyone, sinner and saint alike, is game changing. What I mean is that, realizing this, we find our motivation for introducing people to Jesus. It is important to do simply because Jesus told us to do it, but it becomes more urgent when we understand why. Why do we need to go to our neighbour and the entire world and tell them about Jesus? Because our Father loves them and wants all of us back in his tender care.

Now the tendency of some is to draw the conclusion that God's love alone will save us. They figure that God's love is so great that it will transcend our will and leave us no choice but to accept this act of redemption even if we do not want to be saved. They figure that, if hell exists, it is not something that God would allow anyone to face; that his love will win out. Sadly these people are wrong.

There is no doubt that the greatest force in all of creation is God's love. That love moved him to see his son become a curse by being hung on a tree. He became a curse to save us, the objects of our Father's affection, but those who do not accept that sacrifice remain in the rebellion that separates us from God. They are doomed to destruction; the destruction Jesus came to save us from; the destruction the Father has done everything he can to pull us back from; the destruction that some people are determined to face. God's choice is to save us, but if we do not accept that salvation, the choice is ours. It is we who condemn ourselves by rejecting God's love.

I don't have to go far to prove my point because Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. Just picking one example, something Jesus said as he explained one of the parables to his disciples:

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (Matthew 13:41-42)

I believe the whole "weeping and gnashing of teeth" gives us a pretty good idea what hell will be like. It is the just punishment for the rebellion in which we have lived. We all deserve such a punishment, but through Jesus, the grace of God, he has provided us a way out of this consequence. But don't be fooled by the fanciful wrong teaching that we are hearing in the Church today. God's love is for everyone, but salvation only belongs to those who repent of their rebellion and accept the sacrifice of Jesus.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13)

There is no other way to the Father. There is no other way to receive the great blessings of his love. The great desire of our God is that everyone would be saved as a result of his love, but he has left the choice up to us. Remember, there is a terrible day of judgement coming. Are you ready?